Happy Montessori Summers

The Happy Montessori School Summer Day Camp at the Sands Point Preserve is tailored for younger children, especially those who are having their very first school experience. The Day Camp is designed as a non-competitive, nurturing environment with individualized attention to each child’s developing personality and offer the warmth and flexibility of home with the thematic structure, friendships, and adventures of camp, all in a beautiful, wooded setting. To register, click here or call 516.883.1131.

Small group sizes allow camp instructors to make adjustments to suit the children’s needs or interests, and the freedom to arrange spontaneous, child-driven activities. At the same time, the Camp provides a predictable schedule for each day that helps children to navigate through a new environment. The basic structure of each day includes opportunities for artistic expression, safe water play (sprinkler fun; water-table with endless variations of colored, bubbly, and sandy water), non-competitive athletics (duck-duck-goose, silly relay races, kicking and catching a ball), music, and stories. Campers also participate in educational activities such as hands-on science and discussions about our surrounding community.

Each week has a theme to guide the specific activities, from “Kitchen Chemistry” to “Insects.” These themes influence the week’s art activities, songs, games, and stories.

The Phil Dejana Outdoor Learning Center is equipped with sensory materials like disks of tree bark, tables for collecting scientific specimens (rocks, pine cones, and more), and tools for making musical noise. Campers have access to all the beautiful trails, a freshwater pond, mature forest, and a large meadow. When the weather isn’t cooperative, campers play in air-conditioned rooms inside the Learning Center and in Castle Gould.

The camp is staffed with teachers with degrees in early childhood education, along with an energetic, creative group of college students and teenagers as assistants who are directed by the experience of the seasoned teachers.

The Camp provides transportation on air-conditioned buses. The teachers are the drivers, providing additional continuity between home and camp, as well as a familiar face for the children. The supportive environment of the Happy Montessori Summer Day Camp is a wonderful way for a child to spend a summer and transition to school, whether for the first time or as a returning student.